What Do I Wish I Knew When I Was At Age 20?

It's worth to knew something important at age 20.

I think I was so stupid when I was a teenager because I knew very little thing in life.

I took this picture at Southeast University, Jiulonghu campus. The big building in front of me is the library.

I finished high school at age 18.

It was the normal age for Cambodian to finish their high school.

But many of my friends were actually older than me one or two years.

My dream when I was in high school was to go to university so that I could get a proper job.

Then my life would be care free.

At the age of 20, I was at my first year at university.

While I was studying, I really paid attention to my courses.

Unfortunately, I was not a smart person.

Almost everything I learned from the previous semesters, I forgot.

I felt so sad that I couldn't be as smart as many of my friends.

I realized that I couldn't be a good student even I worked so hard.

Still, I went to classes every morning, except on weekends, from 8:00 AM to 11:15 AM.

I graduated Bachelor Degree at age 23 and now I am at my 28. Soon, I will be 29.

If you ask me what do I have these 28 years?

Honestly, I find nothing precious these 28 years.

Probable I graduated Master Degree abroad?

Or, I got accepted for PhD Degree abroad again?

I also don't know myself because I haven't graduated PhD Degree yet and by holding Master Degree is not enough to find a good job without job experiences.

So, my life is still in the middle of the ocean.

And here are what I wish I knew when I was at age 20.

1. Ability to take advantages from Internet

I had my first phone when I started Bachelor Degree.

And the first time I saw personal computer when I was at age 16 or 17.

I was so excited when I saw it for the first time.

It belonged to my older sister.

Though, I didn't have chance to use computer till I started university.

My first personal computer was given by my cousin that she used already.

She changed the new one and gave me the old one.

I was so happy to have my own computer even it's not the new one.

Then I learn typing English while my English was still at it's worse level.

What I really want to stress at this point is that, I should have learned about the world from that old computer back to my Bachelor Degree. I used that computer for only my studying (doing assignments, making slides for presentation) and watching online movies sometimes.

Such a waste of time.

At age 20, I wish I knew that the internet was not just a place for playing game or watching online movies/dramas, and chatting. I wish I knew internet was also a place to share knowledge, inspiration, businesses, and one of the income streams.

I realized that we all could take advantages from internet only after I finished Master Degree.

The worse point was that even I realized about the huge capacity of internet technology, I still ignore all of them and walked with my unclear path as a job seeker and became a loser.

Importantly, I haven't found a job I love till now.

Well, writing this blog maybe my favorite one but it's not count as my job because I didn't earn a single cent from it.

Instead, I pay for it every month for the domain name and hosting.

2. Financial Management

It is one of my most regret things that I wish I knew at young age.

If I have known it earlier at my early 20s it would still be better.

So that I could get myself ready for this tough life.

I am very good at saving money but I am not good at earning.

I saved $200 from my salary for almost two years and at the end I spent them all.

Such a poor girl that time.

That's why I realize that no matter how hard I try to save money, if I don't know how to earn and invest and use it wisely I can't be an independent lady who can rely on myself in the future.

3. Have Clear Goals

Some people maybe think that making goals are useless.

For me, goals are encouraging me a lot these few years.

I was also a person who didn't like making goals.

Later on, I was told to write my 10 goals by one of my bosses.

But, I didn't know the important of those goals and started to forget.

Three years after creating those goals, I started to realize that two of them were succeeded.

Since then, at age 27, I started to re-list goals and many of them were succeeded.

And I wish I also knew it at age 20 so that I could try my best to achieve those goals.

If my goal was to buy a new laptop during my Bachelor Degree, let's say it was 8 years ago, I would find jobs to earn money while studying.

But I didn't even planed to buy new laptop 8 years ago, importantly, I didn't even think of finding jobs.

At age 20, if my goal was to save $2,000 by the age 24, I would find jobs to earn money.

But again I didn't even think of saving that $2,000.

I let my life flew as it wanted to.

That's why I always think that goals are really important for me.

4. Know how to be carefree but focus

I'm a very careless person.

Why I love being a carefree person?

Being carefree, I won't be bother by someone's words.

Being carefree, I won't be hurt from fighting between siblings because we are still a family.

Siblings are always fighting. Unless, we don't think of it as a serious problem, we will talk to each other again soon.

Being carefree, I won't be sad while seeing people around me buy expensive smart phones.

There are many good things about being a carefree person.

What I really want to say about this point is that beside a carefree person, we should be a focus person.

When I was a teenager, I was probably a kind of carefree person but a very careless person.

Being carefree is good but being careless is worse.

I should have learnt how to be more focus on what I was doing or things which were happening around.

I usually did something for a while, then gave up the next days and thought of doing something else. In the end, I through everything behind my back and kept wondering why I didn't good at anything.

That's why I wish I knew how to be more focus on what I was doing and it would be better if I knew it when I was 20.

If I didn't give up doing what I did since I was 20, I've probably done many big things before I was 25 and I would never regret when I am 28, now.

I hope that the today content will give you some ideas about my real life experience.

If you are at your 20 or early 20s while you are reading this content, you will learn something important and I hope you will start creating your life plans after you read this post.

Life plan is really important for everyone.

So, don't forget to plan it from today and take care of it onward.